Police ID suspect in hit-and-run assault on three nurses at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center

Philadelphia police announced Tuesday that they were seeking a 20-year-old man in connection with the hit-and-run assault of three nurses at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center early Saturday by a vehicle that dropped off a shooting victim, who also was struck as three people fled the scene.

An arrest warrant was approved for Jaadir Goodwyn, who faces multiple charges, including first-degree aggravated assault and related offenses, police said.

At a news conference outside the hospital, Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said a silver 2020 Jeep Cherokee arrived at the hospital emergency department around 4:20 a.m. Saturday and “three males exited that Jeep Cherokee, went inside Penn’s E.R., and begged and pleaded for help.”

Vanore said a Penn police unit was alerted to the shooting victim and headed to the emergency department “with lights and sirens.”

Vanore continued: “At that point, these three males who begged and pleaded for help jumped back in the car and recklessly and intentionally left this parking lot at a high rate of speed and drove right into the three nurses, their own shooting victim, associate, that they brought here, and continued at a high rate of speed away from this area.”

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said: “This is totally and completely unacceptable to me and to all of us here in the city of Philadelphia.”

“Let me be very clear: We are going to end this culture of lawlessness that has been plaguing our city,” Parker later added.

Around 2 p.m. Saturday, the Jeep was located in Upper Darby and was examined by investigators for evidence, Vanore said.

The shooting victim was initially wounded on the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue. He has not been identified and police did not specify his condition except to say he was still being treated.

The nurses who were injured are a 36-year-old man who was listed in critical condition and two other men — ages 51 and 37 — who were reported in stable condition.

Police are still working to identify the two other people who were in the Jeep as well as what led to the shooting on Belmont Avenue.

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said he watched security video of the incident at the hospital and it was “shocking to see the disregard for their lives by these individuals.”

Bethel said it was “very unlikely” the video will be made public.

Investigators from the state and the FBI are assisting in the case.

Kevin B. Mahoney, chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, said of the nurses and other health-care workers: “They are not just doing their job, they’re doing a sacred job.”

Mahoney said that gun violence was at the root of Saturday’s incident, and that the hospital is looking to keep nurses safer as they rush to treat patients in a potentially volatile environment.

”We’re not just going to rush out the door. We’re going to make sure the scene is safe before we come out. Our people are heroes. They run into the storm,” he said. “We’re going to teach them to pause and make sure that the scene is safe. We’re not going to let people die, but we’re going to make sure our staff is secure before we run.”

James Ballinghoff, the chief executive of nursing at Penn Medicine, said that Penn’s security will now require drivers of private vehicles bringing patients to the emergency department to turn off the car and exit the vehicle before nurses will extricate patients.

Ballinghoff said that incidents like the one that took place Saturday are uncommon. But violence against nurses is not.

”Violence and aggression, incivility, racism towards nurses and physicians and health-care workers happens every single day,” he said. “It needs to stop.”

Nicole Hoke, the director of nursing at Penn Presbyterian, said staff have been shaken by the incident.

”Our whole workforce is shocked and saddened for our colleagues,” she said. “It’s a reminder of the risk we take to care every day — we know violence against health-care workers is at a crisis level.”